1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of integrated circuits, and more specifically to a system and method for adjusting the pulse-width of an on-chip signal using an on-chip system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuits typically utilize many on-chip timing and control signals. Signals have states. For example, a binary signal has high and low states, which are often referred to as “1” and “0,” respectively. Many integrated circuit designs depend on a proper duration of a signal's state for accurate performance. For example, in a flip-flop based integrated circuit design, it is typically critical to ensure that a coupled clock frequency is stable at an optimum required clock cycle to allow enough time for critical paths to fully evaluate before the next clock cycle. If the clock frequency increases, the longest path may not be able to fully evaluate before the next clock cycle and the circuit would not function as desired. In another example, in some integrated circuit designs, a circuit is supposed to evaluate in one half-clock cycle instead of a full clock cycle.
Other circuits, such as self-resetting circuits, have particular timing issues. For example, in self-resetting circuits, a pulse width of a reset signal, generated by the circuit itself, determines the evaluation period. Such designs are typically very sensitive to process variations. Also, unlike clock-based designs, where the circuit may fail at some frequency but function properly if the clock frequency decreases, once a self timed circuit fails, it fails at any clock frequency. This is because the pulse width of the self-reset signal is hard coded in the circuit and is not controlled by an external clock. Some technologies are particularly susceptible to having and even developing timing problems over a period of time. For example, in some small-scale device technologies, “Negative Bias Temperature Instability” (NBTI) can cause the voltage threshold of P-channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) devices to increase by a certain voltage level depending on the historical amount of voltage bias present between the gate and source/drain nodes of the PMOS device. A sufficient increase in voltage thresholds can generate the self reset signal and cause variations in the pulse width of the self reset signal, which results in a hard failure at all clock frequencies.
Detecting a circuit failure caused by timing in a circuit, such as a self-resetting circuit, is very difficult using conventional technology. The pulse-width of a signal reflects the duration of a signal's state. Timing errors often involve on-chip signal pulse widths whose durations are either too long or too short. However, once a timing problem is discovered, adjusting the pulse width of a signal is conventionally difficult especially for chips that have been distributed to customers.